


Out of the Loop

by Raven_Ehtar



Series: Prompt Fills [7]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Avenger Loki (Marvel), Avengers Family, Avengers Tower, Established Relationship, Fluff, FrostIron - Freeform, Humor, M/M, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Oblivious Peter Parker, POV Outsider, POV Peter Parker, Short & Sweet, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 12:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18916873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Ehtar/pseuds/Raven_Ehtar
Summary: Peter spots an old enemy heading into the Avengers Tower... but things have changed since the attack on New York. Alot.





	Out of the Loop

**Author's Note:**

  * For [commanderquill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/commanderquill/gifts).



> Story number 21 for Story a Day May!
> 
> And the second one! We're all caught up! This one is filling a prompt given in the Frostiron Discord, so big thank you! ♥
> 
> Still working on writing and editing at a sprinting pace. If you spot any errors, feel free to point them out, I'll get them fixed when I have a chance! ♥

Being an unofficial part of the Avengers – brought in on their planning and whatnot on occasion, but not really being beholden to them – definitely had its advantages. He got to hang out with all sorts of heroes, all of whom seemed to think of him as a little brother, nephew, or son, depending on who it was, and all of whom were _freaking amazing_ to hang out with. As an added bonus, being around so many diverse people, he got to learn a _lot_ of things which had zero to do with heroing, but which came in handy nonetheless. History and politics were a breeze when he got to sit down with Steve, Bucky, Nat, the twins, Shuri… just about any of them, really. And between all of them, he had his choice of second language tutors – he could pick _any_ language and have someone there to baby step him through it.

Which wasn’t to say that he hung out with them just to pick their brains, but… it was handy. Who could really blame him for wanting an academic boost? Especially when the whole hero thing was already eating into his study time? It was just a trade-off.

But being unofficial also came with some pitfalls. He wasn’t _really_ an Avenger, which meant that he wasn’t privy to a lot of the intelligence which the rest of them were. While there were plenty of things which got snuck to him anyway, (by Tony and Shuri, mostly, though Bucky was just about as bad), there was plenty more which wasn’t, either because it was too high security or because people just forgot to mention it.

There were a couple things which he would have _thought_ were important enough to not forget, and right at that point in ‘security’ where _one_ of them would have said _something_.

Peter’s heart about stopped when he spotted Loki walking into the Avengers Tower. He wasn’t in his armor or horns, but there was no mistaking him. Peter wasn’t likely to forget that face… Not that he saw the face during the attack on New York, but that _was_ something which he had been allowed to see in the files: close ups of Loki. He might be dressed in normal Earth clothes, his head bare, but the face was the same.

Peter was already swinging down from the side of the building, barely having time to wonder _why_ Loki would have been wearing his own face when he had illusion to change it, before he was on top of the man. Loki was a powerful mage, and if Peter was going to have any sort of chance of taking him down without backup – which would take precious seconds to arrive – he was going to have to use every advantage he had, including surprise.

He swung through the still open door right behind Loki, zoned in on his target and let loose with the webbing.

Loki must have heard him, or had some sort of extra sense the same way Peter did, because he was already turning around, hands coming up—

Just in time to get a face full of webbing. A face and them the rest of him, too, tossing him back and into the wall directly behind him.

That was fine. That was _good_. Peter kept up on the webbing, letting it play out until he started losing sight of the mage underneath it all. If the guy couldn’t move and couldn’t talk, then he couldn’t cast spells, right? Was that how it worked? _God_ , he hoped that was how it worked.

“KAREN?” Peter said rather belatedly. “You mind letting the gang know we got them a present wrapped up in the lobby for them?”

“No need,” she came back, wonderfully soothing in his ear. “They know and are on their way.”

Loki was about lost in the webbing at this point. He should probably let up, conserve some of the fluid in case he needed it. It would absolutely _suck_ to not have it and need it if it actually came down to a fight…

“Hey, kid! Let up on the webs!”

Peter stopped almost without thinking, looking over to see Tony, Clint and Thor all coming through the far doors at a jog. It was a relief to see them, even if they… didn’t look like they had their weapons. Didn’t they know who was here?

“Mr. Stark!” Tony hated it when he used that name, but they were still in semi-public, so no letting on that Spiderman was on first name terms with Tony Stark… “You’ve got a visitor!”

The three of them looked at the mass of webbing on the wall. It was still possible to make out who it was, but Loki’s mouth was thoroughly covered. He was still able to glare, though, which he was doing fiercely, staring at Peter. Peter looked back over at the trio who had come out, expecting to find them all getting into ready positions to fight or quell any aggressive moves Loki might manage to make while stuck to a wall. Instead he found…

They were all trying not to laugh, to various degrees. Tony’s mouth was twitching, until he had to bite his lower lip, Thor had to cover his mouth entirely and turn his head away, and Clint… Clint had given up and was laughing loud enough to make the lobby echo with it, doubling over and holding his sides.

Peter felt his face heat up under the mask. “Hey, KAREN,” he said lowly enough so only she would hear him. “Did we mess up? This is _Loki_ , right? Big baddie?”

“For everything I’ve been able to gather and cross reference, yes, that’s him.”

“Then what’s happening?”

“I couldn’t say.”

Peter squinted at that. He was starting to get the feeling that whenever KAREN say ‘I couldn’t say’ it was actually code for ‘I _won’t_ say’ or ‘I’m _not allowed_ to say.’ He’d look into fixing that later… assuming Tony hadn’t preempted that little reprogramming with a block already.

Clint was still rolling on the floor a little bit. “Who… _who_ wants to tell him?”

Thor and Tony, in unison, looked at Clint on the floor, then up at Peter, over at Loki still stuck to the wall, and then at each other.

Eventually Tony rolled his eyes dramatically. “ _Fine_ , I’ll tell him. Thor, you mind…” his gestured Loki’s direction.

Thor very suddenly lost his grin. “Ah… perhaps I _should_ be the one to tell the boy…”

Loki, for the first time vocalizing during this entire interaction, gave a sort of muffled yell. There was no telling what it was he was actually saying, but it wasn’t very pleased. Peter automatically raised his wrists up, ready to fire again. It earned him a murderous glare, but not much else, considering. _Considering_ , Peter didn’t think much more was _needed_.

“No, no, no,” Tony patted Thor on the back, pushing him encouragingly towards his brother. “I think it best this comes from _me_ , don’t you? A little more direct, if a bit… overdue. You go play catch up with your brother.”

Thor went, reluctantly. Peter could hardly believe it as Thor went to work at breaking the webbing down with a small vial he had. A lot of the Avengers had those vials, since the webs had a habit of getting unwanted places, but he didn’t think he’d ever see it used to let a _bad guy_ go.

He didn’t get much chance to object before Tony was right there, taking him aside. “Hey, hey, Spidey, c’mon, let’s go have a talk over here, huh?”

Once they were out of earshot from the other Avengers – and more to the point, any non-Avengers who might overhear, and out of range from Clint’s raucous laughter – Tony started to explain. It took a while, and Peter could understand why it was that no one had told him anything about it before. The once attempted conqueror of the planet turning over a new leaf and joining the Avengers would have been a hard sell to anyone, let alone to the very city which had been hardest hit by the attack. Reading between the lines of what Tony was saying, it hadn’t exactly been easy for the Avengers, either. Loki had been back on Earth and adjusting to his new semi-accepted position for _a while_ and was only just getting to the point of grudging acceptance by the majority of them.

Peter could understand that, at least.

But Loki _was_ a member of the Avengers, albeit a secret one. Secret from everyone, including Peter. He tried not to let that hurt at all.

“I was going to tell you pretty soon anyway, Pete,” Tony was saying quietly, still being careful. “Things have been changing around here a bit, and you were going to find out one way or another, so I was going to tell you, rather than you just stumbling across it.”

“Like I did?”

“Yes, like you did. Or not like you did, but in a more embarrassing way, I guess…?”

Tony was interrupted by the man himself walking over, bold as anything. Peter stiffened, unable to help himself, even if Tony still looked perfectly relaxed… and his Spidey sense wasn’t going off, either. Huh.

“I take it this is the boy you’ve been telling me so much about.” And yeah, _fine_ , the voice was enough to make Peter tense up even more. It didn’t match Thor’s voice at all, what was up with that?

Tony grinned, first at Loki, and then at Peter, and it was… hard to stay tense when Tony was smiling at him like that, so _proud_ of him. “Yeah, this is him! Spidey, I’d like you to _officially_ meet Loki. Loki, this is our friendly neighborhood Spiderman. Not a part of the team yet, but still very much a part of the family.”

Peter’s face heat up again under the mask, making it even more difficult to know what to do when Loki gave him a small smile. “A… pleasure to meet you, _Spiderman_ ,” he said with enough emphasis to convince Peter that he knew his real name as well. “Anthony has been telling me a lot about you. I’ve been looking forward to this meeting… Though perhaps feeling it a little less abruptly than at it turned out.”

“Yeah, uh… hi?” Peter shuffled slightly, unsure if he should offer his hand or not. “Sorry about the uh… the wall.”

He shrugged, the smile twitching slightly. “I’ve had worse.”

It was still weird, Peter decided. It was going to take a long time to get used to whatever it was that they had set up with Loki and the Avengers. He was probably going to have to play catchup to get to whatever point the rest of them had managed to get to…

His train of thought was thoroughly derailed as Tony, apparently deciding that the introduction had gone well – or as well as it was going to go – slipped an arm around Loki’s waist and pulled him close, and that was kinda weird, wasn’t it, and Loki was leaning into it, his smile going all soft when he looked at Tony again, and that was really—

Peter stopped, and stared.

_“Oh!”_

**Author's Note:**

> Editing was super fast on this one, so apologies for any extra roughness. ^^;;;
> 
> \---
> 
> Thanks for reading, everyone!
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


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